Publishing 3: What You Need To Know

There was a time in my life when I picked up a book in a store and saw it only for the impression of its cover and the beauty of the words within. Back then, I did not examine the binding quality of a novel or imagine its word count. I rarely even glanced at the publisher of a book and the copyright policy within, let alone the ISBN number and barcode on the back cover. To me, a novel was a story—not a product. And I was much more interested in stories.

Then this weird thing happened. Practical me not only started a publishing company, but dragged myself to college for business. Slowly, I developed a passion that was no longer for the mere story. Now I longed to direct the whole product. I wanted to finish the story by overseeing its physical creation and by ensuring that it was read. There was a sharp learning curve, which I hope I can soften for you—be you hopeful author longing to understand the system or aspiring self-publisher desiring to carve out a living in this changing industry.

Without further ado, here are the eight things you as a writer need to understand about publishing:

1) Copyrights. You may be surprised to learn that your work is already copyrighted. According to the law no one can come along and steal your writing. All the same I encourage authors to go through the formalized copyrighting process found on this government website: http://www.copyright.gov/. Electronic filing costs only $35 and it provides great peace of mind. Importantly, the formal copyright requires you to be paid attorney’s fees if you must go to court to defend it.

2) Barcodes. Flip any book over and you will see a row of lines, usually in the bottom right or left hand corner. This is called a barcode. Nearly all products designed for sale in stores carry a barcode. This is what allows a cashier to scan the product, find the price, and charge the customer. Few bookstores will carry a novel without that barcode.

3) ISBN numbers. The barcode is generated from the ISBN number, which can only be assigned to a publisher by the www.isbn.org/ website. Anyone else claiming to sell you an ISBN number will be registered with the government as the owner of the book. So if you are considering self-publishing, I strongly advise you to buy your own ISBN number. A bulk of ten costs $250, which—when averaged out—amounts to a mere $25 a book. Unfortunately, ISBNs are only given to publishers. This means you have to incorporate. If you are working with a traditional publisher, than this does not affect you.

4) Royalties. The word ‘royalties’ refers to the money authors are paid for the right to produce a book. Different publishers offer different types of royalties. While many authors receive an advance, beginning writers should not expect that. The publishing company is already taking a huge financial risk on a ‘nobody’ and are unlikely to put more money upfront. Most authors earn a percentage of every book sold. This might sound good. Seven percent of a $19.99 hardback book is an astounding $1.40. But when that book gets demoted to a paperback which sells for $6.99 or the Kindle edition hits a promotional price of $5.00, the author’s profits shrink to $0.49 and $0.35 a book, respectively. Since the novel will likely remain in paperback for the rest of the author’s life, the six months of incredible $1.40 profits will become a long-forgotten memory. This is why many best-selling authors claim a steady $1.00 a book. While there are less profits in the beginning, there are considerably more in the long-run.

5) Publishers. You may, rightfully, be wondering just what a publishing company does to deserve $18.99 of your $19.99 hardcover. You would be surprised how little profit they actually keep. Bookstores want a cut of around sixty percent. That’s $12.00 plus your $1.00 gone, leaving them with $7.00. Next kiss a ten percent commission goodbye for the use of distributors, dropping the publisher to $5.00 a book. That is used to pay printers, editors, illustrators, shippers, marketers, and on and on. When the price drops for the paperback edition finding a profit becomes even tougher work for the publisher. So do not imagine that you are being robbed as you examine your first contract with a professional publisher. The goal is to get your name out, not to move to a mansion in New York city.

6) Distributors. For their ten percent commission, just what is it distributors do? They sometimes warehouse books, but their primary function is to put a picture of a book with its summary in a catalogue with dozens of others novels, ship it to a bookstore, and wait for orders. Ten percent for that? Unfortunately, many bookstores will not deal directly with publishers. This necessitates the services of a distributor.

7) Covers. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Heard that before? Truth is, we all do. Book covers are the first impression a book store and a potential reader have with a novel. From the cover we take our buying clues. If the image is grainy, we imagine the editing inside will be poor. If the cover has a brooding teenage girl on the front, we run away from what we envision to be just another vampire novel. It is easy to see why covers are so important. They have a major impact on where your book will be carried and who will purchase it. Do not expect control over your cover when working with a traditional publisher.

8) Editing. While most of the editing done to your book will be simple grammar changes, publishers have the right and the will to hack away any part of your novel they want to. Be prepared.

Overwhelmed yet? Do not be. Traditional publishers take away much of the stress of the facts you just learned, allowing you to spend less time calculating figures and more time enjoying your craft.

-Jessie Mae Hodsdon

Freelance Opportunities

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  -Elysia Regina

Publishing 2: What Does ‘Published’ Really Mean?

There was a time when becoming ‘published’ meant everything. A time when there were few enough publishers and authors in the marketplace that ‘published’ was defined by a large print run, a significant advertising investment by the publisher, and shipments to individual bookstores across the country through the services of a distributor. No publisher took on that risk without a game plan certain to make the author a success. This left a real hope of income for the few writers who finally achieved publication.

We do not live in that world anymore.

To those publishers an era of e-book readers like Kindle and Nook was un-thought of. The idea that an ‘app’ could provide instant access to an electronic library via smartphones and music players was… well… science fiction. To them, bookstores were the backbone of book sales, never to be replaced. Distributers were essential in reaching out to those stores. A fool-proof system had evolved and publishing would never change. Only it did.

Bookstores? Borders folded; Barnes and Noble reinvented itself; and more and more small bookstores wither away. Large print runs? They are things of the past. With increasing technology we have not only seen the advent of e-book readers, but we have also watched as print-on-demand technology made printing a hundred copies of a manuscript financially viable.

Enter the self-publisher. Authors clamoring to be heard and to beat the system latched onto the idea that they could ‘publish’ their own writing. Readers found more choices, often available to order online. Why go to the bookstore when they had a greater selection and greater ease via their computers-then laptops-then smartphones? Self-publishing grew in popularity until it became a way to 1) reach an audience, 2) build a company, and/or 3) be discovered by the major publishing houses. With options to create an e-book at virtually no cost and print a book for less than a year’s college tuition, authors determined to pour their own sweat into the publication of their lives’ work.

As you might have noticed, with so many books surging through the market, the quality decreased. Readers stopped trusting that ‘published’ meant ‘talented’. As the stigma that ‘self-published’ meant ‘not good enough to be really published’ grew, bookstores lost interest in manuscripts from ‘self-publishers’. Crafty authors found new ways to prove their mettle. They let go the gold standard of ‘professional publishing’ and began to blog, write articles, and book tour. Slowly the burden of advertising shifted from the publishers’ and distributors’ shoulders and onto the authors’. Whatever venue of publishing an author takes in 2013, large quantities of advertising responsibility will inevitably rest with them.

Did I just blow your illusion? I apologize. It is no pleasant day when we finally accept that even the realization of the beautiful dream of publication does not eliminate the hard labor of advertising or promise monetary rewards. Society as a whole still believes in this magical illusion of ‘publication = success’. Sadly, it rarely works that way. Even the millionaire writers started small and worked their way up.

Once this is accepted, one question becomes quite glaring: Why should an author give the rights of his book to someone else when he will still have to do the advertising? Well, before I dishearten you completely about professional publishing, allow me to answer with four reasons you should consider traditional publishing.

1) Professional publishers pay all the upfront costs. You would be surprised how quickly the expenses for manuscript production stack up. A professional publisher takes all the financial risk away from you.

2) Professional publishers have connections. They can get your novel into bookstores and onto Amazon, where readers can stumble across your greatness.

3) Professional publishers know what they are doing. From talented cover artists already on staff to marketing consultants to the wizards of editing to high-tech machinery for printing, professional publishers have the experience, budget, and tools to grow your novel into its best form. Despite the truth that you will have to advertise on your own, most professional publishers will join you in marketing the book as well.

4) Professional publication grows your résumé. While it certainly looks good to put down ‘self-published author’ on the job application, having a book in print by a trusted and reputable name is infinitely better. In addition, this will also make you more appealing to the other publishers you hope to work with.

So, while professional publishing does take a large chunk of your profits and still requires you to do a considerable amount of leg-work yourself, it also has a list of benefits long enough to make it a worthy option. No less viable publishing options include the vanity press and self-publication. While society still struggles to grasp the quality of works coming from these venues, authors increasingly find success and independence in their methods. Professional publishers are still the big fish in the oceans of publishing, but as the tides change opportunities for new authors and publishers grow. Some are daunted by the changing times. Others see it as an opportunity to excel. ‘Published’ no longer has one definition.

-Jessie Mae Hodsdon

Make Writing a Priority

     Lately I've been extremely busy, as I'm sure everyone reading this has been, with a hundred different things. Writing related, work related, and everything in between. When life gets crazy busy, sometimes writing doesn't seem like a priority anymore...or maybe it just becomes easy to "put aside". However, if you want to write for the rest of your life--if it's what you want to do--you have to keep going with it. When life gets crazy and you want to, just for ten minutes, relax, you need to remember something: If you skip out on writing when you have the chance to do it, then you will always come up with an excuse. I'm saying this to you as much as I am saying it to myself. There is a reason that I am writing this at 11:47 at night. I was working on my other job and on another project, and got side-tracked. What a lame excuse, huh? Writing is seriously my number one priority besides God and family. If I'm not making it so, then what am I thinking?

     I've been writing since I was a kid. I remember sitting at my family's chunky computer and doing Mavis Beacon (heard of it?) typing tests to see how fast I could type. I remember printing out multi-font, one-paragraph, period-free (ever heard of something so beautiful?) stories to show to my parents and how proud I was of them. I have a binder with stories that I wrote when I was younger that include one that is basically just a kitten recruiting foxes and other woodland creatures as his friends. I got super detailed with my plots, as you can tell. 

      All this to say that if writing is your thing, as it is mine, you need, I mean NEED to make it a priority in your life. If you don't, then it'll fade away. Even the thought of that seriously makes my stomach turn. Writing is what I love, and if I can't make time for that something is seriously wrong. So, I AM making time for it. 

     In short, you need to make writing a priority. I am going to be honest and say that I flip back and forth sometimes with being diligent with writing. I think that this happens with everybody but the difference between people who make it and people who don't are the ones that keep going. When you get discouraged, stressed out with everything, or just plain tired, you need to keep going. This goes for anything else that you have a passion for, even if it isn't writing. If you love something, make it a priority and do it. Stick with it. It will be hard at times, but in the end, if you keep with it, the worst case scenario is that you end up doing the thing that you love. Now is that so bad? I don't think so. Dedicate time to writing and just do it. (I really didn't mean to make a Nike reference there, but, you know, it happens.) Anyway, keep on moving forward and don't stop writing, or doing what it is that you love, for anyone or anything. There is a reason that it is implanted in your heart as something you love. It's called a gift that God has given you, a passion that he has given you, or just a drive to do something that gives you a purpose in life. Do it if you feel that you should, and if you really like it. Make time for it. Make yourself write. 

     Chins up, everyone!

   -Elysia Regina

Writing a Book with Soul

          I am a firm believer that you can't write about something you don't already have in you. A writer writes and creates out of the abundance in the well of his or her own soul. What is inside will be displayed on the page. If you have a deep soul, you will have a deep book. If you have a wide variety of experiences then your work will reflect that.

          In other words, a book is a direct product of who the writer is. When I write I have to dip into my soul and spread it on the paper. Sometimes I do this knowingly, but most of the time this happens without me realizing it. I am just writing about life and characters in the way that seems most real to me. But I have to use what is inside me to create otherwise the story will sound flat, the characters will be one dimensional and the book will lack the one thing it needs: a connection to reality and truth.

          So what do you do if you want to write a deep book, a book with soul?

          Cultivate you. Cultivate your character. This is an art that our culture has lost, yet even so we all have character. Sometimes if we look at ourselves objectively we realize that our character is not what we would like. We may think we're the good guy, the main character, the hero, but we act and think like the villain.

          Often as writers we can be so concerned about our writing skill and developing technique that we forget writing is the product of a person. Skill does have something to do with it and technique is important, but the person writing the story is more important. Take the time to develop yourself as well.

          Discover who are you. When was the last time you stretched yourself and tried something you knew you would hate or find boring? All of life is open to the writer's scope. How can you write effectively about boredom or pain unless you have lived them? Do hard things. Learn new skills. Be really bad at something and then watch how you grow. Touch a leaf with your eyes closed. Try to describe the taste of milk. Climb to the top of a building using the stairs and see where you burn. Face your fears. Live.

-Christina J. Adams

Publishing 1: Am I ready?

We start writing for the joy of it, finding ourselves in the depths of its expression. It matters not if the story is complete or incomplete, loved by others or hidden away in our attic. Yet there comes a time when joy is no longer the sole motivation for our beautiful compositions. The need to have our words read, to have them impact others, to have them shape readers like our favorite books shaped us, bursts from within us. We find ourselves craving an income that permits us to perform the writing craft we love so well. It is then that we realize it is time to leave the small pond where we reign supreme. We must publish.

Publishing is a fluid and dangerous ocean full of dangers like sharks, dehydration, and drowning. The big fish in this new realm are not the writers that, in near-idolization, we wish we could be. No. It is their publishers, organizations that have been around for decades. With a mafia-like capacity for planning, they remove competition and earn homage from all the other fish in the ocean. Getting in with these big fish is no small task. Even by litigiously following all their rules we still may miss their attention. If we gain it, we may wish we never had: their bite can be much worse than their ignorance. And increasingly these big fish look more and more like prehistoric monstrosities who are unable to cope with the changing tides in a vast sea that has never been so connected.

So what do we do, then? How do we publish? Who do we trust? How do we mix our purist need to write and the necessities of business? Take it from someone who lives and breathes writing and publishing, it is no small task. In 2009 I took the plunge into the big ocean with the release of my first book and with the foundation of a publishing company. My research had convinced me that literature needed new publishers, people with backbone and passion and innovation. What I have learned through nearly a decade of research, a Bachelor’s in business, and five years real-world publishing experience could fill volumes. As the priority questions I get from aspiring authors are about publishing—not writing—I figure it is high time someone who works on both sides of the publishing-writing line finally makes things clear. Allow me to begin a series of blog posts designed to help you navigate the dangerous waters of publishing.

For this week we will start with the foundational debate: Am I ready to publish?

No one really knows the answer to this but you. Ask yourself some basic questions.

1) One year from today will I be proud of what I released to the world? Do not look twenty years down the road. By then you will have grown so much as an author that you will doubtless find improvements for your beginning work. Instead, imagine how you will feel in one year. If you are hesitant, then take the time to rewrite, edit, and improve until you believe in your work. If you do not, it will be evident in the very way you string the words together on the page.

2) What is my target market? Have I reached them effectively? All writing needs a market. It affects how you shape your characters, what moral lesson you teach, what vocabulary you utilize, even what tone you take up. Before you can even think about publishing—which centers on connecting a readership to a book—you must know your market. This is not purely the job of the publisher; this is your task as an author.

As you review your work, do not be surprised if you find that your age range is different than you thought it would be. Many authors believe they write for young adults, but, in truth, their novel would only stretch the capacities of a pre-teen. Instead of running from a pre-teen label and making it very hard to write, edit, publish, and market their book, these authors should accept the market they wrote for. They will find greater success and freedom in doing so. After evaluating your market and how you have written for them, you can then decide to publish or to rework the book for a particular market.

3) Is what I am writing important? This one is open for more debate. Not everyone agrees that you should only publish what matters. You must make this determination for yourself. As you weigh the decision, consider this: your reader may only ever peruse one thing you write—in their lives. Do you want your only chance to impact them to be squandered on vain typings done merely for money? Or do you want to have a lasting imprint on their lives? Everything we write is a chance to introduce ourselves to the world. My advice: make that introduction count.

So, are you ready to publish? Then stay safe in this big ocean, fellow writers. It is worth the risk.

-Jessie Mae Hodsdon